Johannesburg – A kilogramme of uranium seized in South Africa as it was allegedly being sold, likely originated from a nuclear enrichment plant outside Africa, the country’s nuclear energy agency said on Monday.

The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (NECSA), which tested the material, confirmed that the substance was unenriched uranium, adding that it likely came from somewhere where enrichment is taking place.

“Yes, it is uranium, and the tests suggest that it must have come from a country that is dealing with some uranium enrichment at the moment, very, very unlikely [in] Africa,” NECSA spokesperson Elliot Mulane told AFP.

Mulane said at this stage there was no firm indication of where the uranium could have come from, simply suggesting investigations will now move “across international borders”.

China, Iran, Japan, North Korea and the United States are among more than a dozen countries involved in uranium enrichment.

Two men in their early 20s were arrested in possession of the 1kg of uranium while allegedly trying to sell it in Durban on 14 November, officials said.

Dirty bombs

The seizure, which also included 90 ecstasy tablets, has heightened fears over the illicit trade in enriched materials that could be used in dirty bombs.

International atomic bodies have been informed of the matter.

According to test results seen by AFP the uranium is 0.38% made up of the U-235 isotope, which is split in a fission reaction.

That level is well below the average 0.7% U-235 found in natural uranium and the 90% level needed to be considered weapons grade.

Mulane said the level of uranium found in the sample is harmless and similar to that found in material used to build hulls of ships and in the construction of aircraft.

Uranium trafficking is rare.

South Africa has the continent’s only nuclear power plant, but several countries have significant uranium deposits and mining activities.

The arrested suspects appeared in court last week and were remanded in custody until 3 December for a bail application.

– AFP

Connecticut – An anonymous caller warned authorities on Monday that his roommate was on his way to Yale University to shoot people, leading officials to lock down the Ivy League campus as police searched for a gunman.

The hunt, which came as the school was on November break, was stymied by students who had stayed behind and were afraid to open their doors, police said.

An emergency call was received around 09:30 local time from a man at a pay phone about a mile from the campus, said Officer David Hartman, a New Haven Police spokesperson.

“All he really said was that his roommate was on his way to the university, to Yale University, to shoot people,” he said.

Police later received reports from witnesses who reported seeing someone with a gun, Hartman said. But he said it was possible they had simply seen officers responding to the initial call.

There was nothing specific about the threat, he said, and the call lasted only seconds. There were no reports of shots fired or anyone injured.

Police blocked off several streets near the university’s Old Campus, in the heart of New Haven, where they were concentrating their search.

Several local schools were also placed in lockdown. Police in tactical gear entered several campus buildings, and a helicopter hovered over the area.

Pedestrian traffic in the normally bustling area was sparse, with cold and windy weather keeping many people inside.

Room-by-room searches

The response included several police departments, the FBI and other federal agencies, Hartman said. Authorities were conducting a room-by-room search of buildings “out of an abundance of caution”, he said.

Yale advised students and staff members to shelter in place. The school also issued an advisory asking people off campus to stay away from the area.

The school is on November break, with undergraduate classes to resume on 2 December.

Many students and staff members had already left campus for Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday.

But many others were still in their dorm rooms, Hartman said. Police were having difficulty gaining access to some rooms because those locked inside were not convinced they were dealing with law enforcement, he said. Most rooms don’t have peepholes.

“One of the challenges that the police department is having is how to check those rooms,” he said.

Yale sent out an email telling community members that officers would be slipping a Yale ID under the door or using keys to gain access.

Yale has been the target of violence in the past. In May 2003, a bomb damaged an empty classroom and adjacent reading room at the law school.

A Yale professor, David J Gelernter, was seriously injured in 1993, when a mail bomb mailed by Theodore Kaczynski, the man known as the Unabomber, exploded in his campus office.

Friday’s search came several weeks after a scare on another Connecticut campus.

Central Connecticut State University was in lockdown for several hours on 4 November after reports by witnesses of a masked man carrying a gun or sword.

Police arrested a student, David Kyem, who said he had been wearing a ninja-like Halloween costume and meant no harm. He faces charges including breach of peace.

– AP

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on Monday announced that the second and final voter registration weekend will be on February 8 and 9, 2014. The announcement comes after the IEC met on Friday to review the outcome of the recent registration drive.

The last registration weekend, held on November 9 and 10, was noted by the commission as having had a significant increase in registrations in which just over 1 million new voters were added to the voters roll.
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Two people have been killed and 18 others seriously injured after a train hit a minibus on the N2 north bound near Shaka’s Rock on the north coast of Durban.

It is believed a minibus veered off the road and plunged down an embarkment, landing on a railway track where it was struck by the train.
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Women, Children and People with Disabilities Minister, Lulu Xingwana, says Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape is one of the country’s women abuse hotspots. Xingwana has been speaking at the launch of 16 Days of No Violence Against Women and Children campaign at Lusikisiki.

The Eastern Cape coastal region, where Lusikisiki is located, has seen scores of elderly women killed for alleged witchcraft between 2009 and 2013. The Minister says she is happy that incidents of abduction of young girls by the custom of ‘ukuthwala’ or “forced marriages” have decreased.
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National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has rejected the Northam Platinum’s wage increase offer. The Limpopo-based company said in an opened letter published in a newspaper that its offer of between 8 and 9% is final.

Several thousand NUM affiliated members have been on strike for the past three weeks. NUM chief negotiator, Ecliff Tantsi said they have rejected the offer with its contempt.
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With South African school holidays around the corner, the annual pilgrimage to the coast and inland provinces is often accompanied by heavy traffic and incidents of road deaths.

Already, South Africa has seen two of the worst carnage – 29 people killed last month in Mpumalanga and 24 last week in KwaZulu-Natal.
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The case against the 31-year-old suspect, accused of raping and murdering an eight-year-old girl, has been postponed to the 13th of January next year in the Uniondale Magistrate’s Court in the Southern Cape.

Jannie Ruiters is not expected to apply for bail. Shafeeka Baartman was found on Friday night with a scarf around her neck, and her legs tied with clothes.
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A police witness at the Marikana Commission of Inquiry, Brigadier Adriaan Calitz, has rejected media reports that he commended police officers for killing 34 Lonmin miners last year.

Calitz has told the commission he commended the officers for following instructions and not because they had killed people. He addressed the officers after the shootings.
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